So the first month of 2008 has been chalked off leaving us with eleven more before it all begins over, but there is one positive outcome of this: another Ovi monthly covers issue. Welcome to the first of the New Year and the Ovi editors were thrilled to see a number of new faces join the team and see the return of our regulars.

The first of the new members of the Ovi team was Valerie Sartor, a journalist based in Beijing, who has begun contributing on a variety of Chinese topics, two of which received a cover ("The Tao of Food" and "Gobbling up the Goodies"), and all of which have captured the imagination and interest of our readers. We were also pleased to welcome Yerevan Adham, a University of Texas student from Iraqi Kurdistan, who made his debut discussing the end of the Kurdish-American honeymoon.

Emanuel L. Paparella introduced many of our readers to John Searle, Slusser Professor of Philosophy, and Christopher Dawson, author of many books on cultural history and Christendom, in two of his January submissions. Ovi's reputation as 'intellectual' was further solidified with a piece by Rene Wadlow for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and his second contribution to our set of four articles for the 60th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination.

Jan Sand wove another tapestry of ideas and observations in his two cover articles, "Facing In and Facing Out" and "Sucking Spaghetti", while Akli Hadid wrote the first of his World Peace Model series and followed it with an amusing overview of the curse of spam. Clint Wayne asked 'How honest are you?' and then asked if Tony Blair has set his sights on the nomination for the European Presidency.

Alexander Mikhaylov shocked a few of our readers with his poem "Dirty old man", Sofia Gkiousou posted letter #10 from London following the relaxation of the one bag per air passenger rule and Jack Wellman reminded us of the late Albert Schweitzer and his 'Reverence for Life'. Judy Eichstedt narrated the stress and horror of an ice storm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while Will Martin captured New Year's Eve in Helsinki through his camera lens.

Between Thanos and Asa, they covered a wide-range of subjects including the movie Tom Jones, Bill Gates' pending sainthood, the death of chessmaster Bobby Fisher, Arthur Scargill's 70th birthday, the benefits of arguing, Musharraf in Europe, Aung San Suu Kyi's independence and the failings of Gore and Annan. They also both wrote about Islam, with Thanos analysing the relationship of Islam and the West, while Asa asked what is so offensive about the Three Little Pigs to Muslims.

January also marked the 500th cover since we began Ovi and the Ovi Bad Boys couldn't miss the opportunity to take a walk down memory lane, although Thanos took the bus.

Enjoy the extra day in February,

The Ovi Team

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